Google buys Bump

Google has acquired Bump, the company that built the proximity-based smartphone file-sharing app of the same name.

(Credit: Bump)

Bump — the app that allows you to share contact information and other files with friends by bumping your smartphones together — has been bought by Google, the former company has announced.

"Our mission at Bump has always been to build the simplest tools for sharing the information you care about with other people and devices," Bump CEO and co-founder David Lieb said in a blog post. "We strive to create experiences that feel like magic, enabled behind the scene with innovations in math, data processing and algorithms. So we couldn't be more thrilled to join Google, a company that shares our belief that the application of computing to difficult problems can fundamentally change the way that we interact with one another and the world."

In addition to Bump, this means Google has also acquired the company's second app, Flock, which automatically finds your Facebook friends in geotagged photos so that you can quickly and easily share albums with friends who were there. For the time being, Lieb said, both apps will continue to function as normal.

Bump also allows users to exchange files with a computer via Wi-Fi, activated by "bumping" your phone on the space bar. Google's acquisition could mean that the company is working on easier file-sharing capabilities between computers and Android phones, as well as Android near-field communication (NFC) capabilities.

Neither company has released the fiscal details of the acquisition at this time.